How to Build Credibility

How do you rate when it comes to credibility? But more importantly, how do you go about getting credibility if you don’t have any or not much of it? Important question for bloggers – Andrew Rondeau fromWe Build Your Blogshares some tips on building credibility as a blogger.

There are some interesting theories around this topic. One such exponent of a theory is Graham Jones who writes about the credibility pyramid.

This pyramid is made up of four key elements.

1. Knowledge (10%) – At the bottom of the pyramid is a band of knowledge. Although this only represents 10% of a credibility score, it is nevertheless the foundation. If you don’t know what you are talking about, you have no credibility no matter what else you might bring to the mix.

Focus (15%) – The next level up according to Mr Jones is focus which constitutes 15% of the total score. Focus describes the process wherein people do not deviate or go off at tangents. This is when we come across people who seem to be single minded in their opinions, approach and knowledge.

This does not mean that you need to bombard other people with huge amounts of details and information in order to be considered credible. It is more the clarity and enthusiasm as well as the consistency of the information that is being presented that allows people to assess the credibility factor.

In some instances it is even possible that providing far too much information can undermine the credibility score. Perhaps this is where the popularity of the ‘elevator speech’ comes into play. You have two minutes to present your information. You have to be focused and only provide the most important points.

3. Enthusiasm (25%) – The next component on this pyramid of credibility is enthusiasm. This has an allocation of 25% which is fairly high. We probably call this passion more often than not. We view enthusiastic people as being far more credible than those who are not.

Perhaps it is because we feel that if the person can’t be enthusiastic about their own topic then he can’t be believing in his own words. Of course this can be unfair. There are some people who are too shy to speak up never mind appear enthusiastic.

4. Care and Concern (50%) – Possibly the most surprising component of credibility is the top part of this pyramid. It shows that 50% of your credibility is associated with your care and concern. If you show that you care about your audience you will be able to gather up half of the score towards a strong credibility rating.

This means that when building up your online credibility you have to show a huge amount of caring and concern for the interests and well-being of your audience. No matter what you are trying to do online, whether build a blog, communicate with readers, sell a product or even just hold a conversation on a social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook, if you care for your audience you build credibility.

It seems that a small percentage of your credibility is knowledge, add to that focus and enthusiasm and you only have half of what makes up your credibility. The other half is all about caring and concern for the other person’s well-being.

Thank you for highlighting my ideas in this article and I am glad so many people have enjoyed reading it. I see that some people think knowledge is more important than I suggest. That is a common reaction; but the fact of the matter is all of the items in the pyramid are inter-related. True you need knowledge, but the care aspect can help people determine whether or not that knowledge is actual or false.

Often people say things like “it doesn’t matter if someone cares, what matter is they know their stuff”. That is almost an instinctive reaction. But when we measure such individuals’ ratings of credibility, care features highly – even if they consciously think it does not affect them, it does at a subconscious level.

Having said all this, the reason knowledge is at the base of the pyramid is because it is the foundation upon which the rest us built. Without knowledge, credibility is very hard to build.

@TwinToddlersDad. I don’t think it is a matter of “getting away” with little knowledge. Research just shows that in the overall scheme of things, you don’t need a lot of knowledge to become credible. However what knowledge you do have must be factual

@ Mark Kachigian. Great connection with Maslow – insightful!

@ Jason Comely. Spot-on! Consistency is of utmost importance. Without that you will be found out.

@ Tim Long. I think we could debate the percentages all day, couldn’t we? I just find it interesting what makes us credible and whatever percentages we individuals think are right, we all should put effort into each category.

@ John Arnold. “Along those lines I find the posts that seem to get the most response from people and that build the most trust are those posts where I share myself somehow within the post. If I can tell a story of something that I have struggled with and made progress on, people are moved to trust me.”
Great point John. Something that I have seen in my own posts….and I need to do it much more often!

@Grace. Great point…as long as it is all factual! What’s been your best sharing of results?

@Graham Jones – great to see you here. And I like your final sentence, “Without knowledge, credibility is very hard to build.”

Great article about how to market yourself and draw attention. Knowing the facts is not enough. 75% of the formula comes from caring about your audience and how you express it. Develop your voice, be unique, don’t just parrot what everybody else is saying. Great work Andrew and Graham.

This does not beggarly that you charge to assail added humans with huge amounts of data and advice in adjustment to be advised credible. It is added the accuracy and activity as able-bodied as the bendability of the advice that is getting presented that allows humans to appraise the believability factor.

Good post. I think that as bloggers you have an inherent responsibility to be transparent and honest, to truly represent your topic so I was a little surprised knowledge was only 10 percent of the score. However you are right inthat it is definitely the
Foundation for a good blog/online persona. If I had to add anything it would be consistency since that aways helps. People like routines and knowing what they are getting. Very helpful and informative as always.

Excellent post Andrew! I believe that caring audience is the most important in building loyal readers. Reader will come back to read your following post, they concern about your caring on them, you have to actually reply to their comment or communicate with them.

Good post, though I think Knowledge should be more than 10%. Care, Enthusiasm, and Focus are things that anyone can have, but Knowledge is what really separates the high earners with lots of credibility from the 99%.

I knew care and concern comes first. I am surprised at the order of the others. I was always under the impression that knowledge came next and then focus. That is perhaps what society has told we young people for a long time in my society. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Darren.

Awesome post and very true. Most people think that knowledge makes people follow them where in reality it’s the connection that matters – this post calls it “Care and Concern”.

As an online network marketer, I believe that keeping in touch with my network is the most important thing that keeps us bonded together. Then there’s the challenge of staying enthusiastic and focused but not to neglect knowledge as well.

This is great, particularly the last point about caring for your readers. I definitely care about helping people but I don’t keep this uppermost in my mind when I’m writing. I become so focused on making my point and backing it up that I sometimes forget to speak as I would to a real person.

A great piece of advice I once heard is to always write with a certain person/client in mind as the respondent. I was just about to publish a new ‘high-info’ post, now I don’t know whether I should edit it a little!

You don’t know how this has helped me. There had been a time that in my search for credibility I was focusing on being popular by adding friends from there and everywhere by joining a lot of forums, by leaving comments everywhere. I know these are important but really this doesn’t give me any credibility. after giving back by visiting my site, they forget me. they forget the site. I start the whole cycle again. I especially love the caring and giving. and I’m guilty of this. a lot of times i forgot to reply to the comments of my readers. i forgot to reply to customer’s queries and in my blog’s case “prayer requests”. *sigh* thanks for the reminder. I shall do a 180-degree turn and do what’s RIGHT. Enthusiasm, Focus and Knowledge are intact so my goal is to just maintain them.

Really, how could one argue with this strategy? I think it not only speaks to credibility but to overall success in most any venture, including (and especially) blogging.

I know that I’m not the most knowledgeable person on my blogging topic, but I work hard to engage my audience by having and giving guest posts, by commenting on blogs and by responding to those folks who comment on my blog. Showing my concern and caring through these methods has worked well for me.

This post is all about how important it is to have self restrictions, all the most important things are the things that you can control!!!

As Darren mentioned:
1. The most important thing is to have care and concern, that alone takes up 50%. Thing thing you can do yourself, it is not hard to give care and concern to your audience; it does not cost a penny.

2. The second most important thing is to be have enthusiasm. This takes up 25%, and it is just writing a blog that you are interested in or have passion. Again this is something that you can change without costing anything.

3. The third is focus and this is 15%: focus is pretty much doing what you are good at doing, Improving what you are bad at. And not doing things that does not work; this is trial and error; keep your eyes on your goals.

4. The least in the pyramid is the knowledge, this you cannot really control, but knowledge is not as important as other aspects that can contribute to your credibility.

I’m interested in the various reactions to your 10% allocation for knowledge, Andrew: my own first reaction was to question it, but thinking back on some recent disscussions with new bloggers still trying to find the ‘perfect niche’ — it makes sense.

Some reasonable amount of knowledge is necessary as the foundation: any blogger trying to write in totally unfamililar territory is sure to make credibility-killing gaffs before too long. But it’s not necessary to be a complete ‘expert’ on a topic in order to begin to blog about it — any more than a journalist must know all about a feature story before he begins to research and write it. You do need to know enough to know what questions to ask and to process the information you come up with, however…

So, yes, 10% of the Credibililty Pyramid sounds about right. After that, the other three factors kick in, and that’s what empowers the blogger to present information in a way that makes sense and solves problems for the readers.

10% for knowledge is interesting. I can’t argue with it though, because as a sales trainer, I teach people all the time that so many other things matter more than what you know…when it comes to getting results.

You HAVE to know what you’re talking about to be credible, but you also have to know how to present yourself and get your message across. It’s the whole package that matters.

It’s also fair to point out that without that 10%, you’d be at 90%, which might sound good, except that being in the top 90% of blogs really isn’t saying much :)

I am surprised on your ranking. I would only follow a blog if it has something interesting to say. But care and concern does not rate high for me as a consumer. I felt that would be reserve more for forum, ask xxx, advice website, etc.

Lately credibility has become synonymous of the friends you have in the guru’s inner circle. Each day is becoming increasingly harder to create credibility if you don’t know anybody who vouches for you. Then everybody start listening to you and buying your products even though they are pure garbage most of the time.

An excellent post, and one that makes you go, “Hmmmm…” Care and concern making up 50% of the credibility score makes sense to me. I see this emerging primarily as an effort to truly understand the problems your target readers are experiencing, and then directing your online efforts towards solving those problems with valuable information, insights, and tips. I see some bloggers following a ‘formula’ that they’ve been taught in some internet marketing course, but never really individualizing those steps based on their own knowledge and experience. I don’t really get “caring and concern” in a sentimental way, not being that kind of gal, but in terms of investing my focus and research into useful valuable information — I get that. A thought-provoking post.

I agree with all four points when gaining credibility. Personally, I would say enthusiasm would be the first key element, followed by knowledge and focus. Its takes passion to continuously blog, Showing that you care about your reader and write to please them definitely is the highest key element to gaining credibility.

This is kind of confusing. Part of the care and concern factor embraces all of the other factors. That is, by showing the audience that you’re giving them the good and rare info that they need (knowledge), tailoring to their specific interest(s) (focus) of the subject, and updating and expanding the blog/site regularly (enthusiasm/passion) all express the same end result, care and concern. So, I think really the pyramid is composed of three different factors which produce credibility. And for most, credibility simply is another way of saying, I care about you, I’m not wasting your time. A little bit more simplified. Makes it easier to grasp.

I can use these on my blog; they do help you to connect with your audience and build trust. Last week, I rewrote my about page with these goals in mind.

One thing I can add is this: always use your real name. Even on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Most people are afraid to back put their name and reputation behind everything they write, but you should because it really demonstrates authenticity. It’s also easier to keep track of one name rather than a dozen aliases, and you’ll build brand (name) recognition.